Last night the D.C. Democratic State Committee selected Sekou Biddle as interim At-Large Council Member, filling the vacancy created by former At-Large Member Kwame Brown’s election as Council Chair in November. Biddle will fill the seat until an April special election, which folks who know D.C. politics better than I say he now has a good shot at winning. Brown has already endorsed Biddle for the seat, and Mayor Vincent Gray has kinda-sorta-indicated support without actually giving an endorsement. (If you, like me, find this process utterly confusing and ugly, blame D.C.'s Congressional overlords for the goofy home rule arrangements they’ve created.)
The selection of Biddle, a member of the D.C. State Board of Education whose reform credentials include stints with Jumpstart, KIPP, and Teach for America, is good news for D.C. ed reform. More importantly, it’s a reminder that there’s a real depth of ed reform energy in D.C. that people outside the District shouldn’t write off just because Michelle Rhee is gone.